I’ve been amazed by how badly everything has been trashed this summer, it’s bizarre. Like you describe, there are lots of really big holes opening up where you least expect them due to heavy run-off from all the rain we’ve had. And the worst hit trails near me are the ones that have been recently “improved” (i.e. ineptly buried under hundreds of tons of imported sandstone) by the local council. The local bridleways would be in much better shape if they’d just left the damn things alone.

Morning! We went up that track yesterday afternoon. I cleaned it all on a rigid singlespeed, though I have to say it wasn’t easy and I did need a rope to get out of one of those craters. It really is properly fubared. Met Chris at the top, he was about to take a cross bike down it. Like NBT says, be careful it really is proper trashed. Interesting fabric exposure too.

There are also some interesting new trenches worn in the Coldwell Clough descent where it narrows plus the campsite descent has been rendered ‘interesting’ in parts. The singletrack lefthand alternative on the downhill lefthander is now a rubbly, muddy but still narrow trench and the artificial rock-steps above and slightly more gnarly than before, you have to think a little harder now.

Apparently Middle Moor is also carnage, so we gave that a miss. Plus there’s a proper lake in the cowfield of doom below Lantern Pike, take flippers…

Went for a local pootle yesterday and was horrified by the state of one of the trails. as we passed Aspenshaw Hall we coulod see debris on the road, and saw that the hall’s residents seemed to be digging up a trench. I thought it odd that they’d chosen to deposit the trench’s contents on the road, especially as it seemed to have been nicely smoothed.

as we continued up towards Barking Dogs Farm (Wethercotes), it became obvious that the debris wasn’t from them digging a trench, it was from the bridleway up the hill due to the torrential rain we experienced on saturday afternoon. The tarmacced road up to the cottages has been raised and buckled by the water, and the bridleway is basically a half mile long trench. MartynS got some pics on his cameraphone that I’ll post when I get a copy, but at one point I was able to put my entire front wheel (29er) in one of the holes, and it was almost hub deep in the puddle

Just be careful with your route choice – it’s a push all the way up and going down could be dangerous as the top section is relatively unscathed until you go round the first corner (possibly carrying a fair bit of speed) to find a wheel swallowing rut.

Of course, I now await the STW riding gods who will tell me that it’s all perfectly rideable and I should take a large dose of MTFU and a unicycle 😉

It was only a matter of time before Aspenshaw fell to bits, the drainage has been on the way out for a while. Derbyshire Council have managed to do a reasonable job of their repairs, it just needed bigger – rolling – drainage bars.

Didn’t drop into Rowarth, but the lower section of that is mostly bigger, bedrock stuff, so I’m guessing it would be better – mostly it’s the top soil being ripped off along with smaller rubble and rocks up to half brick size or so. There’s also a section of the Pennine Bridleway north of Lantern Pike before the diagonal field that’s had a bit of a kicking – the fabric stuff that they lay under the surface has been exposed in parts and there are some more new trenches to fall into.

Rode that bike to work on friday, was soaked on arrival thanks to tyre spray, so yes, a crud guard 🙂

I think the problem is the fact it was resurfaced – the Last Drop to Rowarth is currently fine, though you can see that water’s been down it. Newly rebuilt tracks though are really suffering, as they all seem to be constructed to the same specification which just doesn;t seem to be good enough to deal with this weather. Why is is that tracks built a hundred years ago are fine, but tracks rebuilt within the past few months are already being destroyed?

and sorry OAP, but “bigger waterbars” wouldn’t have been enough, I reckon. You and I know that water causes the damage, but the construction just was’t solid enough, although proper water control would have helped. The banks is similarly affected, although in that case I think the local MXers are not helping

MartynS got some pics on his cameraphone that I’ll post when I get a copy, but at one point I was able to put my entire front wheel (29er) in one of the his holes, and it was almost hub deep in the puddle

Don’t know whether this has been mentioned but went up this way today and the road/bridleway is actually closed now between Aspenshaw hall and the climb near Wethercotes. Presumably for repair after seeing the photos.

The bridleway is still open at the top of the climb so I detoured and joined it near the joinery building so I could still do the fun bit into Rowarth.

I don’t remember exactly but I think it reopens some time around the 26th Sept.